Argentina: Military dictatorship memorial ESMA under threat
Ahead of the presidential elections this Sunday, far-right hopeful Javier Milei has declared he plans to shut down ESMA, a memorial to the victims of the country's bloody military dictatorship that ended in 1983. DW reports.
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00:00 High school students honour visit to the ESMA museum and site of memory in Buenos Aires.
00:06 The former officers' quarters of the Navy Mechanics School was a secret detention, torture
00:10 and killing centre during Argentina's military dictatorship of 1976 to 1983.
00:17 Prisoners were kept in this attic.
00:20 Last month, just before Argentina celebrated 40 years of uninterrupted democracy, UNESCO
00:26 declared ESMA a World Heritage Site.
00:32 This drawing was made by Luis Alberto Vazquez, who is a survivor from here, from ESMA.
00:39 In this drawing he depicts himself peeking out under a hood.
00:44 His hands and feet are shackled.
00:47 From a distance he can see more hooded kidnapped people.
00:52 They had to remain in captivity, covered over and humiliated face up.
00:58 In this basement, prisoners were tortured.
01:01 The students then walk past a relatively new exhibit.
01:04 This plane transported drugged prisoners to their deaths, dropping them into an estuary
01:09 that empties into the Atlantic Ocean.
01:12 The students also learn about the pregnant women who gave birth here.
01:16 Their babies were stolen and given to other families.
01:20 Some of these people were later found and are now ESMA guides.
01:27 Even though atrocities occurred in this place, I feel every citizen has a responsibility
01:32 and an obligation to visit.
01:36 It makes you realize that there are probably a lot of people who don't know their real
01:40 family or what that means.
01:43 We are not very aware of what happened during the dictatorship and because of this we forget
01:49 a lot of things.
01:52 It makes us very aware.
01:54 Many people may think that we young people don't have the awareness we should have.
01:59 Some of these students say they voted for far-right candidate Javier Mele in Argentina's
02:04 recent presidential primaries.
02:07 Mele denies that the dictatorship committed state terrorism and proposes closing the ESMA
02:13 memorial site.
02:14 Mele will run against Sergio Massa in the elections on November 19th.
02:19 At the end of the visit, Argentina's Secretary of Human Rights greets the students.
02:25 We are going to do our best to defend this place.
02:29 More than 5,000 people passed through here and only 300 survived.
02:34 This might be one of the most important symbols Argentina has of what state terrorism meant.
02:43 Mele's predecessor, Claudio Avru, plans to vote for Mele.
02:47 But he doesn't deny state terrorism happened and thinks the ESMA memory site should remain
02:53 open.
02:55 You can see parallels.
02:56 If you visit the world's largest Holocaust museum, there are transportation trains.
03:01 ESMA is a location that shows what can happen in society.
03:05 It is very important to use this space to remind people of the historical facts.
03:10 In my opinion, ESMA should be a human rights center.
03:14 DW attempted to interview Mele about his plans to close the memorial site, but the request
03:19 was rejected.